Mutant Manatee

Looks like "JAN 3 1944". Don't see a lot of date stamps that early.

Detective Comics is a highly collected title. What you have to realize is that there are many people out there who are just pure collectors who have no interest in selling their comics any time soon. I suspect that many copies have been residing in permanent collections for several years. If a collector enjoys looking through his comics and has no plans of selling them any time soon, what is the point of getting them slabbed? (BangZoom as a prime example.) I suspect that there are many collectors of Detective Comics who may be approaching middle age, or older, who fall into this category. Add to that the fact that the vast majority of surviving copies are low grade, VG or lower, and maybe there is a perception that those low grade copies aren't worth getting slabbed. Also take into consideration that if books are known to have moderate or extensive restoration, the owners might also decide that those books aren't worth getting slabbed either.

Beyond beautiful, Roy! Brings a tear to the eye. Thank you so much for posting it.

Thanks a million! (Image saved.) And thank you (((Sha!))) Didn't you say you had a MMC #4 too? And here's the back cover on my copy. (Scanned before I cracked it out.) I wonder what book it's from? I just noticed in the ad text that it says "fits 1948 models" so this back cover is definitely from a much later book.

I would like to see what the correct back cover looks like, just so I could casually keep an eye out for one. I'm not going to drive myself crazy beating the bushes for one, but I would at least like to know what it looks like *just in case*. I suppose there is a way to search for one on the Heritage website, but I tried and didn't find any. I'm probably not doing it right. But I'm pretty much happy with the book the way it is at the moment.

Yeah, Top-Notch #2 is cover dated January 1940 (one month earlier) and shows a swastika on the wing of a plane. But I'll still take the MMC #4 any day. The cover scene actually occurs in the Sub-Mariner story too. I was surprised to see artwork by Irwin Hasen in it too, on the "Ferret, Mystery Detective" story. I guess I've always thought of Hasen as a DC artist.

And I would certainly defer to the person who has much more experience in dealing with Detective Comics than I ever will. (I don't know if you remember me but I was in your booth in San Diego looking at the Tomb of Terror #15 (exploding face cover) but I just couldn't pull the trigger on it.)

No, I don't think that at all. What I was trying to say was, if you had a magic way of determining exactly how many copies have survived to this day, I wouldn't be shocked if that number was 2000 - 3000. Not necessarily owned by collectors, but sitting in dealer's inventory, safe deposit boxes and safes, personal collections, and undiscovered in attics or boxed up in closets, etc. Maybe 2000 - 3000 is too high. It's not a scientific number that I can "prove", just a guestimate based on how many copies seem to show up on a regular basis. I'm certainly not claiming to be an expert on Detective Comics #38, but I do attend a lot of comic book conventions, and I do buy golden age comics, and I have seen this book a lot.

A Gerber scarcity rating of "5" is actually very common for a golden age book. When you consider that Gerber's numbers were compiled before the days of the internet, I think you can multiply that "200 - 1000" many times over. So many comic books have surfaced since the dawning of eBay and the ability of your average Joe to easily sell his own comics. There had to have been literally thousands of collections that Ernst Gerber was unaware of at the time. (He certainly never consulted with me about my collection. !) I think that most of the scarcity rating numbers can still be used as a measure of how scarce a specific issue is comparatively, but I think that the corresponding numbers of existing copies are all way low. From personal experience as an EC collector, I can tell you that there's no way that Animated Comics #nn should be a Gerber 8 (11 - 20 copies in existance). I have personally seen more than 20 copies just in the past 5 years. Larry Charet had 3 copies at his booth in Chicago a couple of years ago. They show up on eBay regularly, and you've got to figure that with so many EC collectors out there, many copies are residing in permanent collections. In fact, there are 2 copies of Animated Comics listed on eBay as I type this. So I guess what I'm trying to convey with my rambling is that I wouldn't be surprised if there are actually 2000 - 3000 copies of Detective Comics #38 in existance. They show up in abundance on eBay, there are 4 copies listed right now, and there's even one for sale right now in the CGC "For Sale" thread.

Thanks, everyone, for the nice comments about my Marvel Mystery Comics #4. I find myself going into my comic book room 2 or 3 times a day just to look at it. Just imagine what I'd do if I ever owned a true GA key. In the spirit of disclosure I must state that the book is restored, however. In fact, you can probably spot the color touch along the spine, especially in the water area. And there's more. The back cover has been replaced with one that isn't the correct one. The book has also been trimmed on three edges. I did try to compare it with an untrimmed copy before I hit the BIN button though, and the trimming appears to be very minor. The front cover still presents well, and the page quality is great. It was CGC graded when I bought it, purple label 0.5 Moderate (A) Trimmed/Incomplete. (Incomplete because of the incorrect back cover, that's how I was able to afford it, !) I promptly cracked it out when it arrived, and read it from cover to cover, just for the experience.

This just arrived in my mail yesterday. It's my earliest Timely. (But I only have a handful.) It doesn't compare to some of the fine examples posted above, and it won't win any awards for condition, but I still love it!

Avengers Annual #7 Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2 I was 14 when I read those fresh off the stands, and no comics have impacted me as much since.